Well, I think they got it right again. Days go by and I’m more and more persuaded that it’s going to be a huge success. Maybe not this release, maybe the 2.0 with camera and so on… Just like the iPhone: same story. Some say the iPhone is going to be renamed “iPad Nano”. That tells part of the story, but not the whole one.

Some days after the keynote I thought the right path should have been: first the iPad, than the iPhone. It’s like history went the other way, but we should wait for the next months to come to fully understand how it develops.
The strategy is almost clear: to bring the computer out of offices and work spaces: it has not to be called computer any more. It’s a personal thing.

It’s been said that Apple strategy is clear: forget about tech stuff and features and processors speed and so on: technology must be brought to a new level: it must become friendly and familiar. Something you can easily use, something friendly and simple as a dishwasher or a micro-owen. Do you really need a micro-owen that burns DVDs? Really? And: what about a dishwasher that takes photographs? Who on earth needs one? But many criticized the iPad for what it can’t do, more than for what it’s meant to be: something you can easily carry around your place, switching it on to check your emails or to write a note. Then you sit down on your coach and enjoy a movie or read a book. Easy, uh? That was exactly what Jobs and Ive and all the guys in charge had in mind: to make you forget that what you’re holding is a superb piece of technology. Tech stuff is scaring, but you don’t have to be scared by it in order to buy stuff, that means: books, music, videos. The iPad is just the way Apple invented to bring the money out of your pocket and down their bank pipes. That’s why it can be sold at a reasonable price: because they care for what you’ll spend *after* you’ll get one, not *when* you actually buy it. It’s like cable TV or many “services” you can buy around: the device that you need to listen or watch costs almost nothing, because what really matters comes after.

I thought – as many others did, confess it! – it could have been a laptop replacement and I believe many ebook makers hoped for it. On the contrary, it’s a fucking friendly device and it will bring gazillions of new users to the House of the Apple.
From this point of view, the iPad is quite disappointing. I mean: I should and would have been getting rid of my Macbook if the iPad would have been a Macbook without a keyboard. I would love it. But that wasn’t what Jobs had in mind, because, come on, who needs a laptop without a keyboard? Really? Do you really want to get mad while writing this stuff on a virtual keyboard? Your Macbook is fine, and Jobs doesn’t want to discontinue it. They want to give and sell you something different. And they did. And it’s something your baker or your grandpa will use without feeling “strange”. Think about it it: to turn a page of a book on the iPad you have to do what you’d do on a real book: put your finger on the lower corner of the page and flip it. You don’t have to push a button. That makes a BIG difference, because you’re asked to do what you’re already get used to do. This is what “natural user interfaces” are all about. “Natural” means “I don’t have to think about it”. That’s the killer app.

That’s why Apple rules.